Jimena Ruiz Castro

Jimena Ruiz Castro is a Policy Associate at J-PAL Global on the Education sector team, where she helps manage the Learning for All Initiative, an initiative focused on improving learning outcomes for children in low- and middle-income countries through evidence-informed policy and research. As part of J-PAL’s Policy and Communications group, she works with

governments, researchers, NGOs, and other partners to support policy outreach, strengthen partnerships, and promote the use of rigorous evidence in education policymaking.

Prior to joining J-PAL in 2026, Jimena worked as a Senior Researcher at Opinion Research Business (ORB) International for 3.5 years, where she managed large-scale mixed-methods research projects across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe for governments, international organizations, and foundations. Her work focused on topics including refugee resettlement,

healthcare, criminal organizations, ocean conservation, agricultural practices, education, and public opinion research. She has experience managing nationally representative and multi-country studies, overseeing field operations in complex environments, conducting quantitative

and qualitative analysis, and translating findings into actionable recommendations forpolicymakers and stakeholders.

Jimena holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Florida State University. She has also completed the MITx MicroMasters Program in Data,

Economics, and Design of Policy and the Vanderbilt Center for Global Democracy Summer School in International Survey Methods.